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Fire crews battle blazes in Queensland and NSW

Emergency crews are working to bring a fire in Bellbrook, New South Wales, under control.

User submitted: Michelle Armson

Emergency crews are still working to contain about 20 grass fires across Queensland, as tinderbox conditions persist.

Meanwhile, despite conditions easing in New South Wales after a total fire ban yesterday, heavy smoke forced the evacuation of a school on the mid north coast.

In Queensland, no properties are under immediate threat and a watch and act advisory for fires on the Fraser Coast has been cancelled.

A fire in the Bauple area south of Maryborough has now been contained, and a watch and act advisory for that fire has also been cancelled.

At Horse Camp near Gin Gin, a fire has been extinguished after 20 crews spent much of the weekend working to bring it under control.

A blaze in a salvage yard in the North Burnett is also under control; officers said it broke out at a Mundubbera property just before 9:30am.

A large black smoke cloud is blanketing the area and it is believed railway carriages and tyres have been destroyed.

Crews will spend the night backburning to control a blaze at Cawarral, east of Rockhampton, which scorched up to 250 hectares over the weekend.

Fire investigators have been called in to find the cause of a grassfire in the Lockyer Valley, which broke out at Lake Clarendon at around 9am and took 10 crews an hour to bring under control.

Peter Varley from the Rural Fire Service said crews across the state are keeping a close watch on the weather forecast.

"Now we expect those south-westerlies to continue for the rest of the afternoon but they're predicted to change around to a north-easterly over the next few days," he said.

"So those fires we had running in one direction will turn around the other way, so we have to be prepared for that.

"It could cause us a few issues."

Bushfire forces evacuation of school in NSW

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) has cancelled a watch and act alert for the Upper Macleay village of Bellbrook, west of Kempsey.

RFS Incident controller Lachlan Ison said earlier that because of the remoteness of the blaze it had taken a while for firefighters to gain access, but work is underway to try to bring the fire under control.

Yesterday's total fire bans were eased in NSW today, with a return to milder conditions and cooler weather.

But authorities said the bushfires in NSW are a sign that Victoria can expect a "significant" fire season.

Victorian Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said some parts of the state are back to the drought-like conditions of the past decade and residents should be prepared for dangerous conditions.

"The winds that are dragging the heat into NSW are coming from Central Australia," he said.

"That will later on, as the weather conditions turn around, late spring early summer for us, bring those hot conditions into Victoria.

"So the forecast is there, to say we'd see a fire season of significance."